Am I alone in thinking the hype around TMM is a little over the top. I don't rate him that much at all

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I think he was carrying an injury through the game. On that basis I would say well done.

Fenderboy said:

Very Warrioresque that last play by Fifita.

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Fifita is guaranteed more dense than any Warrior.

WarriorFaither said:

Couldn't believe what I was watching when he started heading sideways. Glad I'm not a sharks fan because I think after watching that passage of play I'd be up for a new tv

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I think they had their share of tough calls so there might be a few more broken TVs in the Shire. That will be it for them now, they have had their time in the sun.

matiunz said:

It's definitely catered more for the live experience, I had a work function at the MCG to watch a game and I admit it was actually better than I thought- checked out a game on TV the next round and couldn't make it more than a quarter due to being bored out of my mind.

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It would be interesting to get the TV ratings on this weekend, my guess is the NRL would be very good.

There was a hilarious bit on NRL 360 earlier in the week with Arthur going off on the Storms wrestling, then it flicks to Bellamy countering. They both sounded like lawyers for two guys committed for a crime. It wasn't my guy(s) your honor/ref it was the other guys.

None of these Aussie clubs ever lose. The other team just got better calls.

Shane Flanagan just went HAM on the refs! Literally called out very call that went against them

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Didn't do himself any favours with the way he carried on. With the amount of key personnel the Cows had out
Sharks should have won. Just a bit full of themselves. Funny watching Mick Innis after the game almost in tears

Am I alone in thinking the hype around TMM is a little over the top. I don't rate him that much at all

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He looks a bit fragile to me almost eases himself into tackles. They had huge wraps on him at the Tiges, went to Penrith and his first few games were real good. Then this year it went to shit. Punted by the Panfers and had a shit game today.

Crowds at NRL games is a hot topic.
Without doubt the NRL is a better TV product then the AFL, hence TV ratings are always far better in NSW and Queensland.

On the flip sip the Swans can draw in the crowds due to collective pull of one Team in Sydney, with a big pull from North Sydney and Eastern Suburbs. Typically their fair weather supporters, earlier in the season the Swans crowds were well down. One Thursday night game their was hardly anyone at the SCG, just over 11,000.

Note: GWS crowds are terrible and held up by the local derby and the number of free tickets give away, even with a winning team.

What is killing the NRL attendances is scheduling and locations of the games. Thursday, 6pm Friday plus Broncos always playing on Thursday and Friday. Its collectively hitting their attendances badly. Eg. The lack of Saturday and Sunday games is costing Broncos 40000-45000 people through the gate per season.

Without doubt both Cronulla and Manly derseved to play at their respective home to sellout games.

The cost of getting to Alliance is prohibited or hard to get to especially from Manly, Penrith and even Cronulla.

Parking is a minimum of $25 per car, if travelling from Penrith you will be hit for $25 plus in tolls plus 1 hour plus car drive either way. Hence, you've spent $60 before you've even bought tickets for the game and food. For a family of 4 you wont get much change from $200.

To get to the ground by Train / Bus or walk from Penrith would be nearly a 2 hour trip each way (includes wait time etc). Making it a long day for families. Manly supporters have the same issues.

These may seem like excuses but are facts the NRL need to face. Even the parking at ANZ is ridiculous, last night whilst attending the Placebo concert I was slugged $25.

The cost of the parking really got me thinking about the extras costs which forces families to stay away from games.

Furthermore, on the weekend and late nights express trains are limited or on weekends track work stops the trains from running.

Its a dilemma the NRL needs to face for semifinals and other games in Sydney.

I think the rebuild of Parramatta Stadium will help resolve some problems. However, for the first week of finals football I believe the home teams really need to play at their respective home grounds. During the season they've earned that righ

Crowds at NRL games is a hot topic.
Without doubt the NRL is a better TV product then the AFL, hence TV ratings are always far better in NSW and Queensland.

On the flip sip the Swans can draw in the crowds due to collective pull of one Team in Sydney, with a big pull from North Sydney and Eastern Suburbs. Typically their fair weather supporters, earlier in the season the Swans crowds were well down. One Thursday night game their was hardly anyone at the SCG, just over 11,000.

Note: GWS crowds are terrible and held up by the local derby and the number of free tickets give away, even with a winning team.

What is killing the NRL attendances is scheduling and locations of the games. Thursday, 6pm Friday plus Broncos always playing on Thursday and Friday. Its collectively hitting their attendances badly. Eg. The lack of Saturday and Sunday games is costing Broncos 40000-45000 people through the gate per season.

Without doubt both Cronulla and Manly derseved to play at their respective home to sellout games.

The cost of getting to Alliance is prohibited or hard to get to especially from Manly, Penrith and even Cronulla.

Parking is a minimum of $25 per car, if travelling from Penrith you will be hit for $25 plus in tolls plus 1 hour plus car drive either way. Hence, you've spent $60 before you've even bought tickets for the game and food. For a family of 4 you wont get much change from $200.

To get to the ground by Train / Bus or walk from Penrith would be nearly a 2 hour trip each way (includes wait time etc). Making it a long day for families. Manly supporters have the same issues.

These may seem like excuses but are facts the NRL need to face. Even the parking at ANZ is ridiculous, last night whilst attending the Placebo concert I was slugged $25.

The cost of the parking really got me thinking about the extras costs which forces families to stay away from games.

Furthermore, on the weekend and late nights express trains are limited or on weekends track work stops the trains from running.

Its a dilemma the NRL needs to face for semifinals and other games in Sydney.

I think the rebuild of Parramatta Stadium will help resolve some problems. However, for the first week of finals football I believe the home teams really need to play at their respective home grounds. During the season they've earned that righ

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We are better off doing up the suburban grounds. We will never match the AFL crowds. But how good do the suburban grounds look when they're chocker. Admittedly a lot of these grounds are pretty shithouse but rather
spend money on Allianze and ANZ, up grade these local grounds. Need to get back to League tribalism

We are better off doing up the suburban grounds. We will never match the AFL crowds. But how good do the suburban grounds look when they're chocker. Admittedly a lot of these grounds are pretty shithouse but rather
spend money on Allianze and ANZ, up grade these local grounds. Need to get back to League tribalism

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Just like division 2 football in the U.K. Still having terracing and standing can't beat that atmosphere

Without doubt both Cronulla and Manly derseved to play at their respective home to sellout games.

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Good post.
I remember a few weeks back Brandy Alexander was late for a broadcast at ANZ. It had taken him over three hours to drive from Mona Vale.

I think it was last season the Bulldogs were allowed to play an NRL game at Belmore. It was a sellout and a fantastic atmosphere but the financial returns were way down on what they would have got at ANZ.

Whatever the reason crowds are an issue the NRL are going to have to address.

Good post.
I remember a few weeks back Brandy Alexander was late for a broadcast at ANZ. It had taken him over three hours to drive from Mona Vale.

I think it was last season the Bulldogs were allowed to play an NRL game at Belmore. It was a sellout and a fantastic atmosphere but the financial returns were way down on what they would have got at ANZ.

Whatever the reason crowds are an issue the NRL are going to have to address.

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Little though is going into the planning of games. This season there is no excuse for clubs having no more than 1 or 2 6pm games on Fridays.

I've estimated due to the 6pm games on Fridays and the poor scheduling of games it's costing the game 10m in gate receipts, commercial revenues. Plus really dummin down of average attendances.

Hopefully with NRL owning the scheduling of games these issues will be resolved, I'm sure even Fox would be open to Sunday pm games rather than Friday 6pm.

If improvements are not seen I think Todd Greenberg could be under pressure.

Sharks coach Shane Flanagan launches tirade after playoffs exit
Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has launched a stunning tirade on the referees after his team was eliminated from this year's finals by North Queensland, denying the Sharks a chance to defend their NRL title.

Flanagan took the rare step after the game of reading out a prepared list of what he believes were errors made by the officials in the 15-14 extra-time defeat.

He also took the extreme measure of clarifying his prepared statement with NRL head of football Brian Canavan after the game, but before he fronted the mandatory post-match press conference."I just wanted to make sure that we could talk about decisions and I'm not talking about the integrity of the referees," Flanagan said on Sunday.

"We talk about the games, we want to get people here. We've got bigger issues. We've got to fix this up."

Among Flanagan's list were Paul Gallen's knock-on in the final minute of regular time and James Maloney's first-half sin-binning for a professional foul.

- "When is James Maloney a professional foul? It's not a professional foul. It's a penalty, if that."
- "Luke Lewis got run off the ball every time. Go and watch the video how many times he got knocked to the ground in kick-chase.
- "Jayden Brailey going in to tackle the kicker, the kicker kicks the ball at him. He doesn't play at it. Scrum, Cowboys feed."
- "If anyone on this planet thinks Andrew Fifita knocked the ball on, it went tunnel ball through his legs."

Flanagan had two more he believes cost them the game - the first of which was Gallen's late error, and a penalty against Matt Prior soon after that resulted in the Cowboys sending the game into extra time with a penalty goal.

"Paul Gallen, trying to get up to play the ball, and there's a bloke that pulls the ball out," Flanagan said.

"But go down the other end of the field, Matt Prior affecting the tackle, they say he pulls it out and they kick a goal.

"Paul Gallen's should have been a penalty, game over we win the game, full stop. So we talk about decisions, crucial decisions all wrong."

Flanagan is the third NRL coach to take aim at the game's officials in the space of 24 hours, joining Manly's Trent Barrett and Parramatta coach Brad Arthur.

The Sharks coach said it was disappointing that he had to talk about the referees.

"It's disappointing for a game that we're talking about this now. But I had to come and talk about it because in my view, it impacted on the result," he said.

"Those things get factored in the result. In my view, we need to fix it up. Imagine if that was a grand final... well those two (referees) won't be there."

Sharks coach Shane Flanagan launches tirade after playoffs exit
Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has launched a stunning tirade on the referees after his team was eliminated from this year's finals by North Queensland, denying the Sharks a chance to defend their NRL title.

Flanagan took the rare step after the game of reading out a prepared list of what he believes were errors made by the officials in the 15-14 extra-time defeat.

He also took the extreme measure of clarifying his prepared statement with NRL head of football Brian Canavan after the game, but before he fronted the mandatory post-match press conference."I just wanted to make sure that we could talk about decisions and I'm not talking about the integrity of the referees," Flanagan said on Sunday.

"We talk about the games, we want to get people here. We've got bigger issues. We've got to fix this up."

Among Flanagan's list were Paul Gallen's knock-on in the final minute of regular time and James Maloney's first-half sin-binning for a professional foul.

- "When is James Maloney a professional foul? It's not a professional foul. It's a penalty, if that."
- "Luke Lewis got run off the ball every time. Go and watch the video how many times he got knocked to the ground in kick-chase.
- "Jayden Brailey going in to tackle the kicker, the kicker kicks the ball at him. He doesn't play at it. Scrum, Cowboys feed."
- "If anyone on this planet thinks Andrew Fifita knocked the ball on, it went tunnel ball through his legs."

Flanagan had two more he believes cost them the game - the first of which was Gallen's late error, and a penalty against Matt Prior soon after that resulted in the Cowboys sending the game into extra time with a penalty goal.

"Paul Gallen, trying to get up to play the ball, and there's a bloke that pulls the ball out," Flanagan said.

"But go down the other end of the field, Matt Prior affecting the tackle, they say he pulls it out and they kick a goal.

"Paul Gallen's should have been a penalty, game over we win the game, full stop. So we talk about decisions, crucial decisions all wrong."

Flanagan is the third NRL coach to take aim at the game's officials in the space of 24 hours, joining Manly's Trent Barrett and Parramatta coach Brad Arthur.

The Sharks coach said it was disappointing that he had to talk about the referees.

"It's disappointing for a game that we're talking about this now. But I had to come and talk about it because in my view, it impacted on the result," he said.

"Those things get factored in the result. In my view, we need to fix it up. Imagine if that was a grand final... well those two (referees) won't be there."

No I hate Manly with a passion. If a ball ricochets 4 times and he thinks it hasnt hit any part of his bicep or hand on the way through and wants to call it a try. Then blow ya bloody whistle, if theres no doubt!!

don't really understand why the refs can't go upstairs without saying try or no try when they have their vision obscured or if there are a lot of bodies in play.
Surely they could just say that they have no bloody idea as their vision was blocked and can you guys sort it out with your multiple camera angles that you have

Maybe needs to have a chat to some of his "senior" players who had brain explosions a well - Matt Prior raking out the ball to give a way a penalty, Old Milky Fifita running sideways at the end of the game instead of straight and Gallen who took the ball to the line and lost it, possibly a hand in that play but no ball security from him as well. Seems like sour grapes Mr Flanagan. Looking forward to Matty Johns tonite to see old Gordy getting stuck into him.......

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